Tag: Keith Vaz

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures are in place to regulate the prices of everyday drugs sold to the NHS by pharmaceutical companies.

George Freeman

There are arrangements in place to ensure that the prices paid by the National Health Service for medicines provide value for money for the NHS. The prices and the profits made on the sales of branded medicines to the NHS are controlled by the voluntary Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme. If a company chooses not to join the voluntary scheme, it falls under a statutory scheme which controls the prices of branded medicines.

The Department does not control the price of generic medicines; instead it relies on competition to drive down prices. A report in 2010 by the National Audit Office showed that the reimbursement arrangements had delivered savings for the NHS of £1.8 billion between 2005/6 and 2008/09.

Concerns about possible anti-competitive behaviour by pharmaceutical companies are investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The Department and the CMA work closely together on such matters. The CMA is committed to investigating suspected infringements of competition law, including suspected excessive pricing in the pharmaceutical sector. The CMA has strong powers of investigation and, where it finds that a firm has breached competition law, it may impose penalties of up to 10% of a company’s worldwide turnover.

The CMA has been asked by the Secretary of State to undertake further work to look into specific instances of excessive pricing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will estimate her Department’s spending related to the crisis in Yemen.

Rory Stewart

Since March 2015, the UK has provided £90 million to the Yemen crisis, helping over a million Yemenis with food, medical supplies, water, and emergency shelter. We have so far committed £72 million to Yemen for this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support Saudi Arabia’s internal inquiry into war crimes in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We encourage Saudi Arabia to investigate allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law, and for their investigations to be thorough and conclusive. Saudi Arabia has its own internal procedures for investigations and they announced more detail of how they investigate such incidents on 31 January. This will include an independent team of skilled specialists who will assess and verify incidents of concern.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to encourage increased international donor support for Yemen.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK is the fourth largest donor to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We have so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis with medical supplies, food, water, and emergency shelter.

We continue to call on other donors to step up. In July 2015 the Foreign and Development Secretaries wrote to international donors to raise the profile of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis and encourage more funding to the response. In September, the Development Secretary co-hosted a meeting on Yemen’s humanitarian crisis at the UN General Assembly, at which donors (including the UK) pledged an additional £85 million.

We will continue to encourage donors to give generously to the newly launched UN humanitarian appeal for 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons only four of the 10 ePassport gates at Luton Airport were in operation between 7pm and 8pm on 26 February 2016.

James Brokenshire

The numbers of ePassport gates in use is an operational decision for Border Force and are flexed according to need. On the evening in question, there was a high proportion of arriving passengers using ID cards who were ineligible to use the gates. Officers were therefore redeployed to the manual immigration desks to assist with the majority of passengers requiring manual checks.

Waiting times between 19.00 and 20.00 were within agreed service level agreements, with queue measurements for passengers at the ePassport gates being no more than 8 minutes and those at the manual control being no more than 21 minutes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times Spirit Healthcare has been commissioned to deliver type 2 diabetes education to date.

Jane Ellison

The information requested is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made by the East Midlands Ambulance Service on reducing patient handover times to local hospitals.

Ben Gummer

NHS Improvement advises that East Midlands Ambulance Service is working with hospital trusts, clinical commissioning groups, NHS Improvement and NHS England to reduce handover delays. For example, since November 2015 at Leicester Royal Infirmary 1-2 hour delays have reduced by 67% and delays of more than two hours have been reduced by 76%. This has resulted in the average handover time reducing by 38% from 39 minutes to 24 minutes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will estimate the number of (a) refugees, (b) internally displaced persons and (c) persons of concern resulting from conflict in Yemen.

Rory Stewart

Since March 2015, the United Nations (UN) estimates that:

1. 179,654 people have arrived in Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Oman from Yemen, including Yemeni refugees and asylum-seekers;
2. 2,205,102 people are internally displaced within Yemen; and
3. 21.2 million people are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK is taking to prevent a refugee crisis in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has committed £85 million. We have so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis, providing food, medical supplies, water and emergency shelter to those most in need. A political solution is the best way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and end the current conflict. We are actively supporting the UN facilitated peace process and are working closely with the UN to encourage parties to engage in good faith and without preconditions in future talks.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government has taken to relieve food insecurity in (a) Taiz and (b) elsewhere in Yemen.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK has more than doubled its humanitarian commitment to Yemen over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. This includes funding to the World Food Programme (WFP) and International Non-Governmental Organisations who provide emergency food to over 570,000 people, either through direct delivery of food or providing cash or vouchers to enable people to buy food. These distributions are prioritised to the areas of greatest need including the hardest to reach districts of Taiz. Just last week, UK funding helped WFP to deliver a month’s supply of food to 21,000 people in Taiz. UK funding to UNICEF is also treating over 150,000 children for severe acute malnutrition and we are funding the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) to improve the supply of essential commercial goods, including food, into Yemen.